The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[RIR-YELLOWLEGS]

At least this gives us something to write about and keep a little life in this thread. ha,ha. 

this funny but hurrs at the same time

 

[CrzyChknLady81]

I've read your thread somewhere along the lines bc I remember that pic..that's where I got my inspiration on how to pack them for the trip ♡♡

 

[cmom]

I have been more or less in your shoes and had to figure out what to do. I didn't want to loose the eggs either. Whenever I hear or see that someone has been in the same situation, I just have to put in my 2¢ worth. Recently I lost power and my power supply died. Luckily the temp got down to 90º and the power came back on. I do have an inverter and I would have hooked the incubator up to my car battery. The eggs were in my cabinet incubator and it was full.

 

[CrzyChknLady81]

I really want a cabinet and then i think of something like that..lol..Im a skeerdy cat..
I always put my 2 cents when it comes to brooders..I cringe everytime I see someone buy a 80$+ brooder heater bc I make one with a heating pad that the chicks absolutely love and thrive using and I make one for less than 15$..
Its amazing the things your mind will create when given the proper motivation..
And I dont think I said this earlier, but Thank You for the inspiration. .had it not been for me reading that prior, I would have had a complete meltdown

 

[cmom]

I am resourceful too. I started out using styrofoam incubators and one led to another and then another and so on, then I finally bought one cabinet then another. My DH thought I was going crazy so I sold one of the cabinets. One had a solid wood door and the other a clear polly door. I kept the cabinet with the clear poly door. Now I use the stryofoam incubators as hatchers and I have some thick styrofoam coolers I made brooder boxes out of. I put a lamp kit in each one and use a 15 watt light bulb for heat and it keeps them nice and warm. This has happened over many years. As each year passed I modified things. Here are a few pictures.









The chicks go into these boxes and after they have dried out they go into a brooder cabinet. The box in the top of the picture I made into a hatcher.

I had change the thermostat in my cabinet from a wafer to electronic thermostat and used the wafer thermostat in this. I put two 15 watt bulbs in in case one should burn out (it has happened) with a fan at one end. I was still able to maintain the temperature. I did put a few air hole in it too and if I need to block off any of the holes I just put tape over them.

 

[CrzyChknLady81]

That's a nice set up..I started with one borrowed styro and am up to 2 of my own now..I did see a nice stand up cabinet design made out of a huge cooler and I'm thinking about starting in my own cabinet so that I can use my styros as hatchers.
Here is a pic of the 'hens' I make for my brooders

Nothing fancy by any means but the chicks are so quiet and happy in them..I'm brooding 8 chicks in my bedroom and they are 3 feet from my bed and I rarely hear them..only if there's a squabble over a treat..

ETA : they are also perfect for that last lil bit of drying after being removed from the hatcher..just sit them in the back where it's lower and within 15 mins they're fluffed out..

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Quote: I think the younger eggs got hurt a bit more. The turkeys that were not as developed only hatched 5/9 with one very late one still trying. Then again my broody hens got in a scuffle this morning and broke 2 of their 10 eggs so nothing is aiming for a 100% hatch rate right now.

Yippie after I moved those that cooled off in the incubator quit on working when I stopped the turner and upped the water for hatching...... to the adjusted test one 14 hatched within 24 hours of first pip, 3 pipped quitters, and the other 6 were infertile!!! One of the quitters was double yolked so didn't want it anyway - now to figure which hen is laying them.

So my adjustments seem to have done the trick. The last of possible fertile since the cock died are going in now...

This is my last for the year.... have 29 chicks so far now.

Wish me luck here. If good then I will have some to make selections from.

Fred is going to get with me with a couple of my lost Cocks Nephew. The real breeding can now begin in 2016!

If Fred does not have a rooster for you, I just know I'll have a lot by November. Mine are descendents of the Fogle line for purposes of making sure you don't unintentionally cross the lines.

 

[cmom]

That is way cool. I had though about using a heating pad but just not sure how to do it and the coolers were given to me and I had lamp kits because years ago I was making shell lamps. I haven't made any of the lamps in years but had a couple of lamp kits kicking around.

 

[immyjay54]

Sally,
When I brought my eggs to the house, I candled each one before putting them in the incubator and every one of them looked superb. They were all dark with the really nice air sac at the top. I'm so hoping that they weren't left alone to long to get to cold. Sunday will be the 21st day since I set her so they should be doing something between now and the first of the week. I will do the water test on them Monday or Tuesday if nothing happens by then. I just don't have a lot of hope with these because it has been so cool here this past week. The day that I found them the high's were only in the 50's and I can't say how long she was off the nest before I saw that she had left the nest. Oh well, I'm doing all I can do and if they don't hatch then it isn't my fault. I just really did want this clutch of chicks. I still have enough to work with for this year. lol

Jimmy

 

[bluebirdnanny]

I have descendants of the Kittle line in my breakfast/selling eggs group. Will be weeding them out in favor of the upcoming Nelson cuts. The Kittle tails are held too high and overall color a bit off among other things.

My breeders are the Nelson line descendants as I like them better. Got my first trio from him and he took my extra cockerels last year.. Bred one of them this year. And he has the brother to the Cock I had. Already said he has a lot of male chicks. Just will have to wait til next breeding season to utilize them properly with our seasons here.

And between the tests on the incubators I have both Kittle and Nelsons and one rock/red mutt I threw in just to see. It goes to freezer camp. Kittle crosses go in the egg selling/eating group and the Nelsons of course are for keepers. Once they are built up the others will go away.